Recent studies have demonstrated that a range of molecular-level events at surfaces can be amplified into ordering transitions in thin films of nematic liquid crystals (“LCs”), thus enabling these molecular events to be reported as measurable changes in the optical appearance of the LCs. The approach uses the long range ordering of molecules within the liquid crystalline phase to amplify nanoscopic events at a surface into ordering transitions in the LC that occur on the optical (micrometer) scale. In the context of bioanalytic technologies, LC-based reporting of surface events offers potential means to routinely to validate surface chemical transformations that are central to the development and manufacture of surface array-based analytic devices. When combined with surfaces that presenting binding groups, this approach also has potential merit as a means for target molecule detection because it does not rely upon complex instrumentation, and in the case of biomolecule detection, liquid crystal detection obviates the need for labeling of the target molecules with radioactive or fluorescent probes. It has been previously demonstrated that the ordering of LCs is sensitive to the presence of specific chemical functional groups, peptides, and proteins on surfaces, and, with few exceptions, the interpretation of the optical output generated by the LCs has been largely qualitative in nature.
As can be appreciated, it is highly desirable to obtain analytical methods based on LCs that provide simple and versatile procedures permitting quantitative and multiplexed measurements of LC response to molecular events on surfaces.